Synopsis
The story of immigration must not be lost. According to Margaret Ostrowski in her new book, the learning about each of our family’s journey, often a struggle, to come to Canada – the why, the where and the how – is an invaluable source of inspiration for ourselves, our community and our country. A Lost Legacy. This unique perspective has come about from Margaret’s background as a registered Social Psychologist and a lawyer who sat as a decision-maker on Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board where she heard many stories from immigrants and refugees.
She cleverly starts with a short history of the settling of Canada and early immigration practices and follows with insightful descriptions of how the stories of certain immigrant groups have profoundly influenced her, suggesting that our immigrant cultures have much to offer. She weaves throughout the book, as an example, the detailed story of her own paternal Polish history, revealing important findings of the glories of Old Poland, it’s tragic removal from the map for 123 years, the Halifax explosion, the founding of a gold mine in Quebec, and the financing of the education for a famous Canadian poet by her grandmother.
Her research of her family immigration story offers insight to the reader who might have a similar background. For instance, many immigrants travelled to Canada steerage class in earlier times. What was that like? Margaret found a very informative source – the United States Immigration Commission of 1907 where a travel agent in the guise of an immigrant travelled on twelve trans-Atlantic ships (many stopping in Canada) to report on steerage conditions. The account of one informant sets out that “I lived in disorder and in surroundings that offended every sense”. Lost Legacies expands significantly on this description.
The concluding chapters set out an encompassing but easy to read review of the pros and cons of immigration with many cites and interesting examples, often with a social psychological perspective.
Author Bio
Margaret Ostrowski, a retired Psychologist and a lawyer, was raised in a large Polish family. Her father was a Polish immigrant from the Russian Partition of Poland, and her mother’s family came from the Austrian-Hungarian Partition. Margaret has had a lifetime passion for exploring her world, learning how things work, and looking under proverbial stones. As time went by, her interest in family legacy became a passion. She was elected President of her provincial bar association as well as a member of the B.C. lawyers’ governing body. She particularly enjoyed her time as a decision-maker for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. She wrote hundreds of decisions in that capacity as well as hundreds of decisions for seven other decision-making entities. Always a very active volunteer in whatever community she found herself, she received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Award for volunteerism, a K.C. for her legal work, and the 2009 YWCA Women of Distinction Award for Business and the Professions. She has travelled to more than 45 countries and has visited Poland three times. She and her husband raised two sons and she has six lovely grandchildren.
